


Endings and Beginnings

by Harukami



Series: For The Birds [12]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 01:49:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2563802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoba and Mink go back home, and Beni and Huracan are parted -- but distance doesn't mean much to machines.</p><p>This is the final part of this storyline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Endings and Beginnings

Koujaku and Aoba embrace in the airport long enough that even Huracan has to wonder if they're actually going to part again, or if they've fused in some way. But eventually they do lean back, clasping each other's elbows and smiling at each other, both of them with tears in their eyes.

" _Promise_ you're not going to get yourself into more trouble," Aoba says. "After what happened back there..."

"I promise," Koujaku says, in a tone like it's not the first time he's done so. "Look, my father never came after me again for a reason. He's certainly scared of me. And even if he did bring a group out here, he'd be on my territory now. Benishigure's going to be fine."

Aoba nods, shortly. "And you promise you'll be fine? You'll call me every week, like always?"

"Like always," Koujaku says. "I don't want to lose touch, you know? ...I'll be okay, Aoba. Relying on one person to live isn't healthy, but I don't have to do that. I'll talk with you properly, as a friend, and I have other friends here too. I've got all of Benishigure, and I need to keep a proper eye on your granny, and I've got my job to focus on. And Beni too, you know."

Beni, who has been chatting with Ren to say goodbye properly himself, hears his name and strikes a pose, chest puffing out. Huracan, who had almost let himself look at Beni properly again, looks away. "Yeah, you got me, Koujaku."

"So I'll be fine."

Aoba searches his face, then smiles. "All right," he says. "Lots of ladies too, I bet."

"Ah, that." Koujaku laughs, rubbing the back of his head. "I think I'm going to take a break from relationships for a while. Might do me some good."

When they separate, Aoba goes around to say goodbye to the rest. Mizuki has made it out, and Tae, of course, and Clear too. Noiz is nowhere in sight, but according to Ren, he and Aoba had, after all, done some Rhyme, though Ren couldn't say if it was something Noiz had found satisfactory after all.

"Mink," Huracan says.

Mink glances at him from the corner of his eye. "What, aren't going to say goodbye to anyone yourself?"

"I could say the same for you."

"The situation's different for me." He had parted with Scratch after coming back to Midorijima from the mainland; Aoba had chided him for not saying goodbye properly, but Mink had shaken his head, didn't rise to it. "Aoba's coming back with me, after all."

"I'd hardly compare us," Huracan murmurs. "...And besides, these bodies hardly define anything. Proximity means nothing."

Mink frowns at him. "Because you're Allmates?"

"Distance isn't such a real thing," Huracan says. "Not for humans, either, though not in the same way. But Aoba and Koujaku were halfway around the world from each other and this situation still happened."

"Guess so."

So Huracan doesn't say goodbye to Beni, and Beni doesn't approach Huracan to say goodbye either.

***

Huracan and Ren sleep through the trip back, of course. Mink pulls Huracan out of sleep mode as soon as their plane lands, to let him fly overhead; Ren, having to take the long trip in Aoba's luggage, is asleep a little longer. Huracan clears his head in the fresh air; he doesn't have the sense of sentimentality for the air of this place that Mink does, but there's something to say for the updraft of mountains, and the golden light of the sun streaming over him. He keeps track of the bike roaring below, follows it high above, and as it vanishes into the forest he dives to accompany it properly.

From the airport, it's about a four hour drive by bike, and when they get off it and Huracan lands on Mink's shoulder, Aoba stretches. 

"My butt hurts," he complains, rubbing it.

Mink, unloading the bike's trunk, doesn't hesitate, reaches a hand up and over and joins him in rubbing it. "Too bad. How much?"

Aoba goes red, makes a choking noise, and swats Mink's hand. "Not that much!"

"Glad to hear it," Mink says, slinging bags over his shoulders as Huracan hops out of the way to the rail. 

"Jeez," Aoba mutters, stomping up the cabin's steps. He puts a hand on the door a moment later, almost forgetting his embarrassment, letting out a sigh, before digging in his pocket for a key.

Mink tilts his head a little, watching him. "Aoba?"

"I just missed home, you know?" Aoba says. "And it's weird, because ...well, of course that's home too. And so many of the people I care about are there but... I felt like I was home when I was there, and I guess I worried I wouldn't feel right when I came back here. But even with that all, I feel like I'm coming home."

Aoba turns the key, and Mink follows him inside, sliding the bags down and moving to get the fire lit to start to warm the place up; Huracan follows, landing on the back of Mink's work table's chair. "You might just be someone with many homes," Mink says, after a moment.

Digging through their luggage, Aoba produces Ren and touches his forehead to start him up. "Good morning, Ren."

"Good morning, Aoba," Ren says.

Aoba touches their foreheads together lightly, then puts Ren down on the couch, turning back to Mink. "What do you mean? I mean, I know what you mean, but--"

"It's just how some people are. When you decide a place is home, that place will always be home," Mink says, and shrugs. "It does mean that your heart is always called to different places, though. That there's no one place you can go and feel like you're where you belong."

"Haa... Maybe." Aoba sticks his hands out to the fire, as if it would have warmed the area yet, even though that was impossible. "I think my parents were like that. As far as I know, they're somewhere out there still traveling. Dad couldn't stay anywhere long. What was it he said? He needed to keep moving so he could hear many voices, something like that."

With a noncommittal noise, Mink put a hand on Aoba's shoulder, sliding an arm around him, tugging him close. "Could be taking after your father. If you ever do need to go--"

"I won't need to leave you."

"If you ever do. I'll let you go wherever you want."

"I know," Aoba says. He twists away, takes Mink's hand, tugs him toward their room. "If I ever wanted to travel again, though, I hope you'd come with me. It was nice, going there together. Though my butt still hurts."

That last is with implication, and Mink's tension seems to drain from him as he snorts a laugh. "Shall I rub it for you after all?"

"Hmm... mayyyybe."

"Watch the fire," Mink tells Huracan, and the two vanish into their bedroom.

Ren and Huracan sit in silence for a few long moments. And then Ren lies down, patient. "Huracan."

"Hm?"

"Beni told me to tell you to contact him when you got in."

"Did he."

"I told him to say it himself but he pretended to blush, and claimed to be shy," Ren says, with a terribly patient tone."

"Ah."

"I can mind the fire," Ren says. "I've done it often enough now. The bellows aren't hard for me to work, though it's not as convenient as a pair of wings."

So his excuses are robbed before he can use any. "Thank you, Ren," Huracan says. "I appreciate it."

He sends Beni a message: _I've made it back_.

It seems like he's barely sent it when Beni sends him coordinates, which makes him think that Beni tracked the flight, Beni calculated the time it would take to get back to their cabin, and he has to admit it's a bit of a reassuring thought.

Huracan looks at Ren, again, who is sitting in front of the fire, gazing into it calmly, and doesn't bother to say anything. 

He goes online, linking in to the coordinates he was sent.

Beni is already there, crouching and waiting, wrists resting on his knees; he looks up at Huracan with a scowl on his face as Huracan's online form takes shape, and for a moment Huracan is reminded of the time they met and Beni punched him. 

It's because of that that he tenses up as Beni moves, but it's not Beni's fist that meets his face.

He wraps his arms slowly around Beni as the other Allmate kisses him, at that strange and rough sensation of lips he didn't have against someone else's lips, a tongue that wasn't this shape against someone else's tongue, and then he stops thinking about it; it doesn't matter that he's data and code designed to take whatever form was selected at registration, that Beni is too, because he's Huracan, and this is Beni, and they're kissing.

He kisses back, slides a hand into the short feathers at the back of Beni's head and gets a grip there, kisses him hard and needily, sucks at his tongue, bites at his lower lip, breaks the kiss to tilt Beni's head back and sucks on his throat there. Beni gasps, and he wants to leave a mark -- can't leave a mark, knows he won't leave a mark, doesn't care. He does it anyway to leave a mark that Beni will feel, a memory of what it feels like to have someone sucking and biting at your throat.

"Fuck," Beni says, gripping at Huracan's sides, squeezing and digging fingers into his flesh there, like he wants to feel what kind of shape Huracan really has to him, and Huracan decides, abruptly, that that's a good idea -- that he wants to explore every inch of Beni, remember this arbitrary shape completely. "Fuck," Beni says again, higher pitched, shriller, "I love you too."

For a moment, he almost doesn't register it, and then he pulls back enough to look down at Beni. Beni's painted cheeks flush darker and he shoves a hand into Huracan's chin, forcing him to look up and away instead. "Shut up," Beni hisses, although Huracan hasn't said anything back yet, "shut up, don't say a word--"

So he doesn't yet -- not, at least, while Beni moves in to bite at Huracan's neck, make him feel that same sharp _understanding_ of the sensation. They're both gasping for air, scrabbling against each other awkward and rough and unpracticed, and Huracan welcomes the strange hot blanket of arousal wrapping around him, welcomes each only slightly-familiar press of body into body, and he pushes Beni away, grabs at his kariginu to yank it off him, leaves Beni stumbling back in the clatter of geta.

"Hey," Beni says, "Unfair," and then launches himself at Huracan again.

They tear at each other's clothes like they really are animals, pulling pieces off and scattering them into component data as soon as they leave their bodies, trailing light from their fingertips as they disrobe each other. They kiss between movements like they don't want to pull away for even a moment, until Huracan tastes like Beni and, he thinks, Beni must taste like Huracan, not that he was ever accustomed to thinking of himself as having a taste, for all that he could eat food -- but he does, and Beni does, and he shoves Beni back, sprawls between his legs, and decides to taste him elsewhere.

He sucks Beni's cock into his mouth, slurps at it urgently, runs his tongue around the weight of this as Beni shrills and cries out and wails, as Beni grabs huge fistfuls of the long feathers of his hair, as Beni's bare feet scramble out on the 'ground' of the field around them. His thighs keep slapping against Huracan's ears and cheeks with their restless movement; he doesn't care. It's more sensation, it's more sensuality, sound quality changing from the pressure of flesh blocking his ears, it's the warmth of Beni's legs on his skin, it's the taste of Beni's cock in his mouth, and he moves with his eyes closed, reveling in it, dragging his mouth over Beni over and over again in something like a trance until Beni wails, shoves far enough into his mouth that Huracan chokes, even as Beni comes. This too is data, and it's not the first time he thought that, but who _cares_ about whatever pervert programmed it? Who _cares_ , when come is bubbling up on his lips as he coughs around Beni's cock. They're Allmates, and their nature is inherently unreal, inherently digital, but their feelings are real, once they have them.

And Huracan thinks he has them, wants to continue, wants to make Beni feel even better, wants to love him, and he thinks, as he sits up, wondering at the feeling of pressure in lungs he doesn't have, at the dry rasp of his voice as he coughs and wipes wet hot come on the back of his hands, that Beni wants that too.

Beni's spent, flushed, dishevelled and wild, legs akimbo, but he just reaches up and says, "Fuck me, then?"

"Already?" Huracan asks. "Are you ready for something like that?"

"Are you a cockatoo or a chicken?" Beni shoots back, so Huracan presses a finger up his ass.

Beni shudders at that, eyelids heavy, and relaxes back, covering his eyes with his forearm. "Don't stop there," he says, so Huracan doesn't, pries him open, pushes fingers in and out until he sees Beni squirming, and he doesn't know if it was pleasure or pain or just sensation, just ability to feel either of those things as a human might, ability to feel it with Huracan.

It doesn't matter. He's so turned on now he can't think of anything except feeling more and more, feeling it with Beni, and he leans over him, tugs fingers out, pushes his cock in its place. Beni makes a high shocked nasal noise, but he doesn't jerk away, doesn't push at Huracan with hands and feet -- does the opposite, grasps at him with his hands, his arms, his elbows even to pull him in presses scrabbling legs against his sides to rock his hips up, to suck Huracan into him.

This close to each other, he wonders if their code is mingling, wonders, briefly, very briefly, what their data must look like network side, if whatever network manager ran Usui might pick up on nonstandard fields like this and look into the data being transferred, and then Beni is saying his name, "Huracan, _Hur_ acan," like he's babbling, and his mind stops working overtime again, stops sabotaging itself again, and he's drawn back to the moment, drawn back to the way they're moving, drawn back to the feeling of Beni around him, and he moves, and moves, and moves, doubles over him and presses close -- couldn't move away anyway, not with the way Beni's clinging to him and swearing -- and can feel him, hear the way he's saying his name, see the hot fixation in Beni's eyes, taste his sweat, smell him, until there's nothing but this and the feeling inside him, and coming feels strange, even stranger than the last time he did it, because it comes with a panicky thought that this incredible moment where he feels like he can feel _everything_ might stop with the pleasure.

It doesn't.

As arousal ebbs, as they clutch each other together, Beni rolling under him in a sticky, sated sort of confusion, as his nonexistent heart slows, as his nonexistent sweat cools, he finds himself almost wanting to cry.

"I do, you know," he says. "Love you."

"Obviously," Beni says. "Who wouldn't?"

***

They stay together for what feels like a long time before finally separating, touching fingers, promising to meet up again soon; distance isn't real, after all, not with a network in place. Coming back to his Allmate body, too, he wonders if his feelings will slow down again, cool back into a narrow range; still, they don't. He doesn't feel out of control; he feels perfectly calm, perfectly in control, but also feels perfectly _complete_.

"Ren," he says, "any trouble with the fire?"

"No," Ren says. He rises, shaking himself off cutely. "Do you mind taking over?"

"I don't mind. Going to sleep?"

"No," Ren says. He trots toward the bedroom.

Huracan tilts his head. "Are they done in there? You want to go sleep on Aoba's feet instead?"

"Yes," Ren says. "They're done." He looks back at Huracan, and there's something strange in his eyes, some dark complexity; Huracan wonders, suddenly, if he's missed something, if he's misunderstood something, in his own struggles with emotion -- has that expression always been there? "And, yes, I will sleep on Aoba's feet. We both prefer that."

He watches Ren nudge the door open and head inside, the door half-closing behind him as he pushes it shut again.

No matter, he thinks, after a moment. They have plenty of time to talk about it, and perhaps he's in a place to understand it, now, to understand Ren, now, in a way he's not sure he did before. They're capable of anything, really, he thinks, given time.

It'll all work out, he decides, and goes to fan the fire.


End file.
